Here are the 14 Democrats who made the cut for SC’s presidential primary

Fifteen Democrats are running to be president of the United States. But one of those names will not appear on South Carolina’s Democratic presidential primary ballot in 2020 when voters head to their polling precinct the last day of February.

Presidential candidates hoping to get on the nation’s “First in the South” presidential primary on Feb. 29 had until noon Wednesday to file their official paperwork. The S.C. Democratic Party announced the last filing to hit their desks was Deval Patrick, Massachusetts’ former governor, who only jumped into the race in November.

Missing from the field of 15 candidates is billionaire Michael Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York City, who has said he will not run in the country’s early voting states, instead focusing his campaign on the Super Tuesday races.

That is despite the fact that Bloomberg now holds a key S.C. endorsement from Columbia Mayor Steve Benjamin.

In an interview published Monday in the Washington Post, Benjamin said he has advocated for Bloomberg to run.

“I’ve advocated, and I continue to advocate inside the camp that I think that … not only should he compete, but I believe he could compete very effectively here,” Benjamin told Post opinion writer Jonathan Capehart.

The state’s Democratic Party received paperwork for 15 candidates total, but one of those filings will not be certified by the party Friday.

In a surprise Tuesday, U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris — who had arguably one of the largest field operations in South Carolina — announced she was ending her presidential campaign after struggling to raise the money needed to be competitive.

The California Democrat had filed her paperwork just a week ago in front of a 300-person audience at Benedict College, one of two historically black universities in Columbia.

Without her filing being certified, Harris’ name will not appear on the ballot come Feb. 29.

Here’s who to expect on the S.C. Democratic presidential primary ballot:

▪ U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, of Colorado

▪ Joe Biden, former vice president

▪ U.S. Sen. Cory Booker, of New Jersey

▪ Pete Buttigieg, mayor of South Bend, Indiana

▪ Julian Castro, former secretary of the U.S. Housing and Urban Development

▪ John Delaney, a former congressman from Maryland

▪ U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, of Hawaii

▪ U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, of Minnesota

▪ Deval Patrick, former governor of Massachusetts

▪ U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, of Vermont

▪ Tom Steyer, California billionaire

▪ U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, of Massachusetts

▪ Marianne Williamson, author

▪ Andrew Yang, entrepreneur

After the filings are certified Friday, they will be sent to the South Carolina Election Commission.

This story was originally published December 4, 2019 at 11:29 AM.

Maayan Schechter

The State

Maayan Schechter (My-yahn Schek-ter) is the senior editor of The State’s politics and government team. She has covered the S.C. State House and politics for The State since 2017. She grew up in Atlanta, Ga. and graduated from the University of North Carolina-Asheville in 2013. She previously worked at the Aiken Standard and the Greenville News. She has won reporting awards in South Carolina. Support my work with a digital subscription